Hey how is everyone?!!!! Well as you can see this is the third chapter of my story. So far very few people are reviewing which is okay i guess, hopefully as my story continues more people will review and review. Anywho like I said, there is no set couple in this story although im starting with one that everyone uses. You'll see, but that doesnt mean there wont be someone else. If you want i would appreciate if you would at least tell me what other paring you would want to see, even if it is an anonymous review. Any other girls from class 3A that you would like to see pair with Negi? Let me know and they could possibly be next. Well on to the show and... I DO NOT OWN NEGIMA! So don't sue!!!!! Oh and Reminder "THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE" story, so just go with it.

" " - Speaking

' ' - Memories or thought speak

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Negi blinked as he jumped back from the blow, as blood began to flow down his face. His opponent threw a couple of quick jabs aimed at his wound over his left eye and as Negi attempted to lower his head and pull back he felt two of the jabs connect with his injury.

Their hearts were racing as the two fighters' regarded one another. Negi threw a quick combination of jabs and hooks but was surprised when he was pinned down to the ground. Despite his present struggle Negi was slowly being pulled to that cold December day and time began to slow down as the sights, smells, and sounds began to fade away.

'Pressed against the brick wall he heard her scream through the night's chilly air.'

An arm wrapped around his neck as he struggled for position, Negi slowly turning blue, as he fought for every breath.

'He could feel the cold steel as it penetrated. Felt the warm gush of blood as they pulled it out and the sickening crack as they swung a lead pipe over his head.'

As they tumbled forward Negi freed himself from the chokehold and grabbed his opponents arm as he rolled on top of him and straddled him.

'Struggling to crawl, he forced himself to move forward, he had to get to her. Had to know if she was alright and so he forced himself to look up. Tears began to swell in eyes at the sight.'

His eyes were wide as he pulled back his fist and let it fly towards his opponents face, landing with a sickening thud. The sound of his fist meeting with a human's skull was the only thing that resonated through his mind. He pulled back his other fist and continued to pound his fist to his opponents head.

'I should've saved her! I should've fought them off! I should've-'

His opponent lay there concussed as Negi was tackled by the referee to stop the match and further injure his opponent. The roar of the crowd was deafening as they declared him the winner. He slowly stood up and observed the people as they chanted his name. He slumped his head and began to make his way out of the cage. It was a short fight but all he wanted was to go home.

As he made his way to the locker room, he could still hear the chanting of his name, and the scream for his help from that cold December day. Looking down to his chest he could see the scar where the knife had punctured his lung and had nearly cost him his life and yet a single tear rolled down as he wished not for the last time that maybe it should have killed him.

Once he fought his depressing memories away he found a small envelope with an invitation to a small benefit for the arts. Negi smiled as he read the words on the back, "To get you started on that dream – Kotarou." Negi smiled as he closed his locker and made his way out the door.

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Takamichi looked up as Negi opened the door to the club. The tired fighter stopped at the sight of the doorman, but with a breath he pressed on up to the entrance desk. Takamichi straightened his tie and smiled a rehearsed expression. "Welcome to Club Mahora. How may I help you?"

"I'm just coming by to see the girls." Negi said, trying to stay friendly and unimposing. He held up fourteen dollar bills. "I got paid last night."

"Wednesday's an odd night to get paid." Takamichi said. "But either way, I'm afraid I can't admit you, seeing as you were 'forcibly removed' on your last visit."

Negi lowered the money and looked around at the empty waiting area. He smiled to himself slowly shaking his head. "How can I make this happen?" He asked. "I just want to get in to see Sweet for a few minutes. That's all."

"Why?" Takamichi asked, his deep voice almost vibrating deeper than the music in the next room.

"To say thanks, that's all." He said honestly. "Five minutes, I swear that's all I need."

Takamichi looked at the young musician for a moment, paused, and took hold of the separating rope that cordoned off the main room. "I'm afraid I can't accept money from someone's who's been forcibly removed." He took down the rope, but stepped in front of the doorway. Negi stiffened at the sight of the large man, but he didn't backup. Takamichi reached up with pronounced movements and lowered to look Negi right in the eyes. "Five minutes. Understand?"

Negi smiled and nodded.

Club Mahora was a bit livelier than Negi had remembered. Several girls shared the main dance floor while the music seemed a bit more up beat and appropriate. Meanwhile, around the room in the smaller stages and in the few cages that lined the rear wall near the bar, different girls danced around, captivating the few men at each station with their motions.

Negi spotted the single girl in the black swimsuit and headed towards the cage. Only one man was around her, his attention torn away by the free food bar.

He strolled up to the cage and coughed, stopping just before it. The steel dancing prop was suspended from the ceiling; it's floor coming just below his waist. The circular container was lined with gray metal bars that were thin enough to allow for very little obstruction.

Sweet turned at the cough, her body continuing to sway to the melodious techno that pumped in over the speakers. "Hi." She said with the same, confident smile.

"Hey." Negi replied as his heart began to race and tried to keep it calm. "I wanted to come by and say thanks for yesterday."

"It was good for me, so don't worry about it." She answered, bending over a bit, turning the man at the other side of the cage around to pay attention again. Negi fought the urge for his eyes to lower with her motions, but he managed to keep his eyes on her eyes.

"Look, that Takamichi guy only gave me five minutes, so I've got to run." Negi reached into his pocket and pulled out a five wrapped around a piece of paper. "My cell phone's got some minutes now, so give me a call sometime." He smiled, slipping the paper into the cage before he turned and left.

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The water that came down from the faucet head waved slightly from warm to hot, but Negi ignored it. He scrubbed his hair as thoroughly as he could, inhaling the misty steam of the shower as he tried to relax and calm down. Through the glass door of the shower, he could see the red display of his clock. The benefit wasn't too long from now.

Three loud bangs startled him back to reality. Negi spun the shower controls the wrong way, causing the water turn even hotter. He jumped out of the stream before the water could burn him and turned the controls back the other way to silence the stream as another barrage of knocks sounded through the small apartment.

"Hold on!" Negi shouted, as he stumbled out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist. He skidded into the living room on wet feet and discarded the blue contraband covering as he grabbed up his pants and slid into them, not even zipping them up as he opened the door to see Kotarou in a suit with a dry-cleaning bag over his shoulder.

"Hey." Negi said, opening the door halfway, a surprised look on his face.

"I thought you mind need this." The Kotarou said, holding a bag out to Negi. Across the back of it, the dull words of 'Raskil's Tuxedo's' were written in crimson on silver. Negi looked up at his friend, still dazed. "It's a tuxedo." He said. "Get dressed. We've got a dinner to make it to."

The driver stood on the last stair at the bottom of the stairwell, staring out at the nighttime-encased parking lot. He slid his hands into his pockets, only to hear a few steps from behind him. He turned around to see Negi and Kotarou coming down the stairs. Traditionally cut, but still impeccably designed, the tuxedo brought out a feeling of dignity that Negi didn't know he had.

"I told him about your parking lot." Kotarou preempted before Negi could say anything. They simply headed down into the parking lot leading Negi down the steps and away from the building. The group stepped out of the building in unison and started the trek towards the limo on the other side of the parking lot. Negi slipped on his reading glasses, glancing over at his friend. Kotarou didn't say anything and simply resigned himself to the walk.

"So, how did you pay for these things?" Negi asked after a moment as they walked in awkward silence. "I mean, do you even have money to pay for this?"

"Don't worry about it." Kotarou answered, never more than glancing away from the car. "The dinner costs like a thousand bucks or something outrageous like that and the money goes to some local charity."

"Oh." Negi paused and began fidgeting with his tuxedo jacket. "This may not be a good idea then."

"I'll be fine." Kotarou smiled. He looked over at Negi, smiling in amusement that made him uncomfortable. "Think of it as an investment. Now about the dinner… all you have to do is go in there and try to talk to everyone you can. The trick to these parties is to remember that A) everyone there makes more money in a week than you will in a year and B) there isn't one person there who can't help you in at least some small way."

"You've been to these before?" Negi said, mildly surprised.

"Of course," Kotarou laughed. "I've been to a couple of these and spoken to a few directors, producers, and publishers when I've been to these."

"Care to share those names?" Negi asked, half-joking.

"Why?" Kotarou asked, looking at him. "You're about to meet all of them tonight."

Negi put his glasses back on, staring through his naked eyes of the limousine. He looked over at the small, but convenient bar to his left, stocked with assorted snacks and drinks. He sat back, taking in the whole space of the large car.

Almost nervously, he put his glasses back on, focusing on simply breathing. "You know," Negi said to his friend. "I always thought the first time I'd be in a limo, I'd already be successful, not going to try and be successful."

"Funny how that always works don't you think?" Kotarou smiled.

Negi smiled as well and looked around again. He caught his reflection in the windows as the city flashed by. He reached up to take his glasses off again.

"Leave 'em." he looked up to see Kotarou staring back at him. "Leave the glasses. They'll make you look more serious." Negi lowered his empty hands.

The door to the limousine opened, the light from the gala taking Negi by surprise. He stood up just outside the door and looked at Kotarou next to him. The young man smiled and glanced down the red carpet that waited for them. Beyond the limo, a line of calm photographers waited, a few snapping shots of the two friends. He looked at the other fighter, smiling nervously. "It's like a movie premier on valium."

"Well, this isn't that big of a deal and we are about half an hour early." The other fighter explained. "We can catch some people as they wait in the lobby. It's good for casual talks about things like art, music, literature, movies." The driver closed the door behind them, forcing both to step forward away from the limo. Negi looked puzzled at Kotarou, "Speaking from experience?" His friend just smiled as he waved at the cameras. "I've been offered a few roles before." Kotarou said. Negi turned back to him with a surprised look. "You never said anything about that." He muttered in shock. "Why didn't you tell me?" Kotarou simply shrugged as he turned to look back at him. "Didn't take the parts, so I figured why even say anything."

Negi turned from his friend and took a deep breath. He took a few steps, expecting anything but a few flashes as photographers got snap shots of him. But when he kept walking, they went back to their work of readying their cameras for the next local celebrity.

They headed up the steps of the convention center, to find the bronze and glass doors held open for him by doormen. He looked at the two then headed in, trying to stay objective and calm. Inside the convention center the marble floors shimmered with an unusual shine while the walls were done up with ribbon and testaments of how much the charity had done for the local community.

Both stopped at a bulletin board near the doors that they had just entered, a poster that showed a young girl with braces and a violin, looking at them with a smile. "The Kansai Charity helped me to play my violin." Negi read from the poster and laughed to himself. "That's a viola, not a violin."

He shook his head and turned towards Kotarou and to the main ballroom of the convention center. Through a pair of large wooden double doors, the friends found a large room done up extravagantly, with gold trim, from the chandeliers to the chairs pushed into the ornate tables. And standing just behind the doors was a wooden podium where a young woman in a conservative, but still form-fitting blue dress waited, considering the guest card. Negi swallowed hard as they headed towards her, smiling as they approached.

Once Negi was within a few feet of her, she looked up, smiling a familiar, coy smile.

Sweet N. Sour looked up from the podium at Negi.

Negi stared for a moment, his eyes locked in horror while his mind went through a progressive shut down and restart in an attempt to try and figure what just happened. He finally blinked, shocked to see the stripper from yesterday staring at him equal horror.

"You're . . . you're you!" He finally got out.

"You were . . ." The young woman exclaimed, staring in equal shock.

"I'm guessing you two have already met?" The two broke their gaze simultaneously as Kotarou spoke up from within the room. He turned to Negi for the moment. "Is everything alright?"

Sweet looked from Kotarou to Negi. Negi looked at his friend and suddenly broke out into a nervous smile. "Yeah..." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "We've met before."

"Oh, you have? Please introduce her." He turned and held his hand towards the girl. "The name is Kotarou Inugami."

"Asuna Kagurazaka" She suddenly piped in. "And we both just recently met, isn't that right Negi?"

"I see." Kotarou nodded understandingly before smiling politely at Negi. "I hope that we can meet again. I know there are some very good friends of mine just waiting for me inside so I'll go, bye."

"No, no." Negi said, waving his hand. "Don't leave me alone."

"Bye" Kotarou replied as he waved with a smile. "Enjoy the company."

For a moment, Asuna looked at Negi with puzzlement, but then she smiled. "I'm guessing you're suffering from abandonment issues?" She laughed, looking at Negi and eliciting a small laugh from him. She looked back at Negi with a please and congenial smile. "I was wondering when I would see you again." She said, before she looked away with a blush.

"So did I." He added, blushing just as deeply. He looked around at the grand ballroom, then to Asuna again. "I have to say, this is the last place I'd expect to bump into you." She looked up at him, but the confident expression he had so quickly gotten used to seeing on her face was gone. Now, she stared at him with concern and a bit of worry. She considered him for a moment, and then tried to recover some of her professional façade. "What are you doing here?" She finally asked.

"I'm here for the dinner." He said. Asuna got a defensive look on her face. "My friend, Kotarou, got me a ticket and everything." He said, looking at the reservation list on the podium. "Negi Springfield. I think."

Asuna looked standoffishly at Negi for a moment longer, but then she looked down to the list. She flipped a page, then a second, and then looked back in surprise. "Here you are right next to Kotarou." She whispered in mild shock. She looked up at Negi and tried to smile a weak smile. "Here." She said, holding out the credit card-sized guest card. "Just keep this with you."

Negi reached out for the card, but just before his fingers touched the golden plastic, Asuna pulled the card back. He looked up at her just as the edges of her mouth twisted subtly into the coy smile he remembered. She held out the card again, letting him take it this time. "Enjoy the dinner." She smiled, letting him into the ballroom.

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Negi's table was with Kotarou at the back of the room, far away from the main table where the dubious award ceremony was being held. Several patrons of the charity were being honored for having come to more dinners for longer or more than anyone else. Negi dozed through the ceremony, instead trying not to focus on those around him.

"I hate these things." Said the man to his right, A balding, fat man, he spent most of his time talking, except when he was admiring Asuna and a few of the other younger ladies at the charity dinner. "I've been coming to these things for years. As the owner of four theaters, you've got to constantly have your fingers on the pulse of the community." He said disdainfully, taking s healthy sip from the half-full glass of clear and clearly alcoholic liquid. "I just want to get out of here and get me some tail, you know."

"Yeah…" Negi stumbled out in shock, looking away to his left. An older woman watched the proceedings with a shake of her head, a disgusted look on her face. "Not enjoying yourself?" Negi asked politely, leaning forward.

"No, young man, I am not." The woman said, turning proudly to him. "I find these petty little parties to be so tasteless. These people are here to help others because they want to pretend that they are good people, rather than the cut-throat bastards that they really are."

"Well, how would you run things differently?" Kotarou asked, genuinely curious of the conversation.

"I wouldn't." The woman said indignantly. "If you want to help someone, you should stay out of their lives. Those pathetic losers who ask for charity, they do not deserve our hard-earned money. If they wish to have a good home to live in and food on their table, they should work for it like everybody else."

"There aren't many jobs to be had." Negi tried to argue. "I, for one, have had . . ."

"Oh, whose side are you on?" The woman accused loudly, turning the heads at some of the adjacent tables. "There are plenty of jobs. They just don't look hard enough for them. If they wanted it bad enough, they could find it. They are just lazy, that's all. Lazy and stupid. And you shouldn't encourage them." She said, pointing a rickety old finger at Kotarou then at Negi. "Those good-for-nothing street people all drugged up and sexed up. You should be helping your own kind, not those vagrant good-for-nothings."

Negi stood up. "Ma'am, I'm sorry. It suddenly got very hard to swallow in here. I'm going to have to step outside." He stepped away from the table quickly, leaving her behind.

He only took only a few steps from the table when he saw Asuna excusing herself outside the ballroom. He glanced back at the nineteenth award being given out and the fourth speech for it and he headed to follow her.

Outside, the comparatively bland and quiet hallways of the convention center echoed with each step. But as Negi stepped completely out of the doors, he found Asuna leaning against a pillar, staring directly at him. The same coy smile had returned while her red hair draped over the left side of her face. "So, I see you've met Mrs. Dayton." She said with a low, soft voice.
"Is that how she is?" Negi asked, glancing back at the door as he slowly approached Asuna. "For a moment, I thought she was kidding."

"Oh no." She said, standing up luxuriantly from the pillar. "She's quite serious. A friend of mine once told me she needed some money, and I told her to go to lovely Mrs. Dayton and tell her that she was collecting money for the 'send-poor-people-to-the-sun' fund."

"Yeah, that'd probably work." He nodded. Just a few feet apart from each other, Negi stood before Asuna, trying to hide his shallow, weak breaths. "So, how late do these events usually run?"
"Oh, this one will probably last until eleven or so, if not later." She smiled acceptingly. "There's got to be plenty of time to pat everyone on the back, whether they deserve it or not."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Negi shrugged, "But what about you?"

"What about me?" She asked, looking up at him.

"What are you doing after the dinner?"

"Oh, I've got to help clean up and sort and count the money and all of that." She said, her confidence fading somewhat in the light of imposed responsibilities.

"Ah." Negi nodded, watching her every expression. "I was hoping maybe we could go out for some dinner or something." He tried to ask, but his voice faded up a bit on the last few words.

Asuna looked up at him, brushing her hair out of her eyes so she could stare at him with her full intensity. "Didn't you just have dinner?" She asked.

"Yeah, but that was terrible." He laughed in a vain attempt to relieve some tension. "I mean something that actually tastes good."

"I see." She nodded. "And what tastes good to you?" She asked, her voice lowering just a bit.

Negi swallowed, feeling his face burning red. Suddenly though, he chuckled. "Green tea and ice cream."

Asuna's eyebrow went up. "Okay, there were a lot of directions I thought you might take that comment. That wasn't one of them."

Negi laughed at her confusion and his own oddity. "You've never had green tea and mint ice cream?"

"No." She said, unable to keep from laughing.

"I know it sounds disgusting, but it's really good." He said.

"Where'd you try that?" Asuna laughed. "Was it some kind of dare?"

Those words echoed inside Negi's mind. And for a moment, the image of the girl in the picture superimposed itself on Asuna. His smile faded, but he forced it back before the young woman before him could even notice the change. "Come on. We could go get some." He said, trying his hardest to sound natural.

She laughed, but shook her head. "I can't." She maintained sadly. "I wish I could. I really do. But I can't. I've got to help my sister."

Negi nodded. "I understand." He looked back at the ballroom, then to her. "Well, I think I've talked to at least half those people and none of them are interested in helping out a starving writer with my aspirations."

"I'll ask around and see if I can find anyone looking for some hip, fresh new writings." She smiled sincerely. "But go have your mint ice cream and green tea." She put her hands on Negi's lapels and smiled into his eyes. "And I'll see you soon."

And she stood up and turned her head just slightly, kissing him gently on the cheek.

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The sounds of the typing echoed off the smile on Negi's face.

The writer read the story on the screen, releasing a short, intense burst of clacking as his fingers pushed the keys in successive manner. He moved in a few times, causing a rapid barrage of clicks before he moved back, letting his hands continue to type. He took a deep breath, counting off the pages of his following story.

As he kept typing, he glanced over to the windows, to see the early morning sun rising at the edge of the green horizon of trees. He glanced back at the tuxedo that hung from his bathroom door, as if it was as energized by the previous evening as he.

Negi turned his attention back to the screen and started to speed up the typing. He kept pace with the story in his head, keeping characters and situations up to speed with his imagination. The ideas hit the walls, reverberating back at him, the power of his imagination keeping him company.

With a grand explosion of a gasp, he moved back from the keyboard, bringing the story to an end. He laughed at his own breathlessness as he held his left forearm, flexing his fingers powerfully. He groaned in delight, then bent down in front of the keyboard.

He hit the save button on the program, the disk drive releasing a single floppy disk. He put the disk into the case and slid in a new floppy disk into the now-unoccupied drive.

Negi sat in the corner of the room, the large computer that was normally covered by a stack of clothes and magazines turned on, its ancient screen of green and black displaying the archaic program. He typed in a fast control of the mouse less computer, stringing together a consistent sequence of files, many of them duplicates. He typed over and over, forming a visual web on the screen of the files pushed together.

Finally, he smiled as he stared at the files. He didn't even bother running the spell check program. He simply pulled the plug out of the computer and walked to his stereo. He turned it on, and then looked back at the screen. Laid down on his bed and fell to sleep.

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Well what do you guys think? Pretty bad huh? Well come on, what do you guys expect? So who else should make an appearance for dear Negi's heart? Let me know, kay?